Jacob’s Ladder is a 2019 thriller about a man who returns home from war, struggling to maintain his sanity.
Yes, this is a remake. No, it’s not as good. That’s really what you’re here for and while I should probably have held that in suspense a bit longer, there’s no reason to do that to you, director David M. Rosenthal‘s reworking of Adrian Lyne‘s 1990 classic retaining most of the core plot points of the original but losing most everything else in-between. There’s an argument in all this that the effort is entirely unnecessary, but why waste energy. This is where we’re at and for those that have yet to see Lyne’s groundbreaking film, this at least may offer a few jolts.
Jacob Singer (Michael Ealy) is home safely from the war in Afghanistan, a surgeon who saw plenty of horrors but none worse than finding his brother Isaac (Jesse Williams) on the table, mortally wounded. The loss haunts him, back in the states, while he raises a newborn with his lovely wife (Nicole Beharie). A year later, getting some help for his PTSD, he is more troubled by his memories but when a homeless man finds him and says he’s seen Isaac in the city, Jacob begins to lose some control of his sanity, paranoia and panic getting hold of his stability. Did his brother really survive? What is real and what isn’t?
The larger problem with Jacob’s Ladder is it doesn’t trust its audience, which is probably a sign of the times, the film not willing to ask any of the questions that the first did so well. The seriously creepy visuals of the original film, which made the rabbit hole all that more easy for us to fall into then, are not as impactful here, every single encounter Jacob has a decoy that is hopelessly see through. It gets so that it’s no so much you won’t know they’re coming. You just won’t care.
I want to be fair. Rosenthal is rubbing against the grain in making this and he probably knows it, so does what he can to give it some personality. He earns a few good jump scares and updates the premise with some stake, but its legs are weak, the changes in the story not all that sturdy. The whole cast does what they can, Ealy and Beharie a strong on screen couple that harbor some credibility, yet despite the effort, much of this is inert, even with a love triangle twist.
So I’ve come this far and not mentioned the ending, something that made the first so iconic, and you are no doubt wondering what the filmmakers have done with the update. Naturally, I won’t let slip any spoilers, though if you’ve seen the original, then you have at least one idea in mind. I’ll credit this team with at least trying to cleanly separate their new story while dressing itself in enough recognizable bits to hold rights to the title. It’s a noble effort. Unfortunately, there is just no heart to this movie, no sense of investment and nothing that lowers the boom like we expect, leaving this a curious misfire.